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I'll go ahead and make the necessary defense; some of us just like the show and not necessarily the furry porn alternative art that spirals off of it. Pop on over to /r/mylittlepony sometime if you like.

Nope. Not clicking on ANYTHING with space- in it ever, ever, ever, ever, four times ever again on this site. Even if it's a r/space post. Even if it has raptor lazers in it. And lasers. And Batman. On Venus.

EDIT: I am not saying that only rich people ride horses.... Its just that they CAN and MOST OFTEN cost a lot of money. Anyone can be an equestrian without being extremely rich, if they are willing to make sacrifices!

Edit: I never knew that calling horses expensive would cause such a ruckus with some people..... Grow up.....

This just makes me have more questions. Who owns Flexible? Is he worth more than Rafalca? Why does he like jumping, but Rafalca likes dressage? And why is it called dressage? Horses don't wear clothes.

well, I don't know much about Flexible. But a lot of horses are just better at certain things because of their build, temperament, and musculature (this is variable!). The average horse is pretty much okay at everything, but these horses are breed to be great at one thing. The horses that do eventing have to be great at everything, but may be incredible in just one thing.

Flexible is owned by Harry and Molly Chapman who have owned horses that Rich has ridden for many, many years. Him making his first Olympic team at 52 has made all of us from the NW pretty excited that his hard work has paid off. I don't know about Flexi's worth...he is a stallion so they will benefit from the stud fees on the future foals of an Olympic show jumper.

I used to ride horses when I was younger at a stable near the house in Aus. Lessons were somewhat expensive, but I was middle class and it was affordable for the family I suppose.

Worth every penny. Point is - you can get near horses and not have to be rich to do it. In fact a lot of youngsters take up part time work on horse stables and that sort of thing. The really good ones help train, and in some cases even take the horses to big events and ride them! Obviously its rare as hell though.

I did this too. I worked the stable so I could board my horse there. The barn manager would pay me (in cash or lessons) to watch over the place when they went on vacation, and some of the boarders who didn't regularly ride would let me take lessons on their (way higher trained than mine) horses just so they would stay in practice.

It was awesome. We definitely weren't rich (though many of the other boarders were), and I was still able to do this.

I worked for a woman who medaled at the 96 olympics in show jumping...I worked in 2008 when she was making her last bid to qualify for them. Got some hapless, loaded couple to spend $1,050,000 on this horse for her to ride, and they didn't even qualify. Not even close.

Race horses can get up to three and six million sometimes. Like the other guy says though, that's mostly once they've made it. But at the same time, Horses that are just from good stock can run up to a hundred thousand. Winning a race or two, sometimes even just placing, can durastically spike the price.

Also worth noting, most of the time in equestrian sports, especially racing, the owner takes home the most, if not all in some cases, of the winnings. Jockey's get the legacy though, at least behind the name of the horse.

My bf's family owns a small racehorse stable up in Suffolk Downs. Most of their horses are small time, between $5,000 - $10,000 usually when purchased as yearlings.

They own around 22 horses and usually make anywhere between $150,000 -
$300,000 a season off winnings(average I think is ~220,000 for them), but a lot of that goes to upkeep, rent and pay for the jockies and workers,(hay is 7$ a bale, plus high quality grain/vet/dentist/farrier)so they really don't often turn much of a net profit. There's a ton of room for error if you don't have any horses run well, and the track hasn't been pulling in much business these last few years with the economy and the gambling being illegal. (so the track had to give smaller purses)Although that changed a few months ago so the track is maybe getting slots again, which hopefully will bring in more people and therefore more money etc etc.

Anyway, like I said, they don't often turn much of a profit, but sometimes you can get a really good horse, who will consistently run well, and earn quite a bit. It also depends on how hard you race your animals, my bf's family only runs them once every three weeks, but some trainers/owners will run the horses much more often than that to try and win more (but that leads to higher injury chances.) It's an interesting business for sure, with a ton of variables involved. I've owned horses for pleasure, but their upkeep isn't nearly as costly as a racehorse, which is good because they don't earn me anything either, unlike the ones my bf's family owns.

Edit 3: Feel free to ask me any questions about the business, since there seems to be a bit of interest, I'll answer what I can :D

Edits: Numbers and clarity

EDIT 2: Suffolk Downs(and most race tracks now) has an anti-slaughter policy for horses that are retired from racing, for those who are curious. Basically means that owners have to find homes for their horses, either through rescues or some other alternative, and cannot sell retired horses to slaughterhouses.

they are expensive like cars are. There are cars that you can get, that will carry you around, for $500, but may have some problems, and aren't too pretty. Then there are high-performance hotrods and collector cars that people pay millions for. And everything in between.

Because it's so expensive for a middle class family. Boarding can be as much as rent and sometimes that doesn't include feed. Farriers, vets, meds, steroids, training: it's all really fucking expensive.

Totilas was approved for breeding by the KWPN in 2009, and stood at stud in 2010 for a stud fee of €5,500, or about $7,000 (US), considered a very high fee for a warmblood stallion. A total of 175 mares were approved for the stallion, including US Olympic medal-winner Brentina. His first year at stud generated fees of nearly €1.4 million.

Horse gigolo fo sho. I'm sure by the end of the first year they had to prop him up on the ladies. (1.4mil / 5500 = 254, not 175, if the stud fee was the same every time)

I used to ride a horse at my barn who had Native Dancer (Northern Dancer's grandsire) in his bloodline 3 times. Not that it did him any good. He was barely motivated enough to break into more than a slow canter. I can't believe he didn't do well at the track!

I'm sick of this generalization. Dear Reddit: I am poor and I ride horses.

Yes you normally have to be rich to make it to the olympics. You don't have to be rich to ride horses. Most riders are a very modest collection of people who SPEND EVERY PENNY doing what they love. I grew up in the ghetto and my parents had no money to send me riding but when I was a kid I LITERALLY collected pennies from the side walk and at the end of the year I'd have 100$ to spend on lessons.
Now I'm an adult and since I have top work I can only ride once a week and I pay for it. It's not expensive. 30$ an hour, REALLY not bad.

My instructor gives free lessons to kids getting off drugs. Are they rich too? In fact, even the owners of my stable are not rich, they have to crow corn to pay for the horses!! It's all for them... if people have to be rich to do what they love you can sure as shit believe that they'll try.

Equestrians are some of the most generous and selfless people in the world - horses teach that to us. (Mitt obvioulsy is NOT an equestrian and I wish his name would disappear from association with us).

Hurtful to the OP, but true. There are horsed bred from the right genes and trained the right way (not cheap) over their lives. My dad, who's just a US Air pilot, says his fellow pilots have sometimes saved up about 4 million bucks to own an already trained and result-showing racing horse, as an investment. I'm not sure if what he says is accurate, but this wouldn't surprise me at all..

The difference is that you're simply riding domestic horses. You're not riding Olympic horses. You ride at a stable, you aren't dressing in your finest equestrian garments and paying for a top-notch horse and then competing in Show, Long, or High jumping or in being judged in events such as dressage or even competing Polo. Riding once a week is quite different from competing in the Olympics. Those are the types of events you need to be rich or super rich for.

No one has even suggested that you needed to be rich in order to simply ride a horse at a stable. Even the poster of your parent comment exclaimed you need to be rich to own a horse. You've even backed that up. You stated that you're poor, and that you ride once a week, but you don't own a horse or stable. Olympic horses are bred and trained specifically for the purpose of being elegant, beautiful and competing at the top in these events. Buying a top of the line, pure-bred horse in the first place in quite expensive, then you have to had all the training, feeding, and maintaining that horses generally require. $$.That's not a habit anyone without loads of money could even begin to afford. That's the entire point of this post.

My good friend is into equestrianism, and owns a couple horses. He's not wealthy. It's like anything. If you love something, you invest in it. He makes a good living out of it. Some horses cost only 10 grand, and if you train them right, you can sell them for a lot of money. Sometimes he drives to LA to ship them when he makes a sale for one of his clients. It's a cut-throat industry too.

From what my wife tells me - its about equal. A great rider can make a shitty horse look decent, and a great horse can make a shitty rider look decent. It depends on the activity which is more relied upon.

I agree that it depends on the activity, but I think the quality of rider is still exceptionally important. A bad rider may get on an excellent horse and look decent at first, but horses very easily pick up 'bad habits' or change their style depending on the rider. For example, in the equestrian world if a rider with what's often described as "hard" hands works with a horse with a "soft" mouth quite often the horse (with time) will begin to become less sensitive to the hands of the rider and develop to have more of a hard mouth (basically soft mouth = really sensitive to any pressure from the reins).

Basically the point I'm getting at is that even though these filthy rich equestrians have their horses meticulously trained and receive top coaching themselves there is still an admirable level of skill needed to perform as they do. What I notice the most is the lack of technique in the basics of riding among a couple of the olympians- e.g., some of them in the eventing segment during dressage had their legs flapping around everywhere. At a local competition this would be pretty frowned upon and the coaches I've had would certainly give me hell for being so "messy".

Money is certainly a HUGE factor in the equestrian world. If you have world class facilities, grooms, horses etc. you have a much easier path to success. That's not to say you can't be successful unless you have a six figure salary, it's just definitely easier.

So many equestrian redditors... Is there a subreddit? My horse nerd senses are tingling.

Both. Here is a classic example. One of the horses in 3 day eventing was on the gold team last Olympics. He was sold to a fairly young girl showing for Thailand. She ended up in 41st place. So yea the horse needed the skill to get there but he also needed a good driver. YOu can also be amused reddit as the horse's name is Butts. Source: http://ninaligon.com/wp/language/en/

I have some experience with show jumping through my wife. Her current horse actually qualified for the Olympics In 2004 but hasn't done much jumping since.

A lot of them are rich dandies, but a good many put a lot of work into this. They usually all have grooms to handle the mundanity horse tasks but the better ones do as much work themselves as possible. They put a lot of work into riding and training, and it is not an easy sport. Some are gay, some have hot wives, and most live this lifestyle day in and out. Personally, I am glad to be rid of it, way too much money and work. (as the husband who doesn't ride professionally, I became the groom)

However, if you do get into riding and showing you will have no shortage of fine looking honeys at your disposal. They might assume you are gay, but get past that and you are made.

By training the horse to respond to very subtle commands from the rider's body and building up to increasingly complex manoeuvres over many years. Both horse and rider have to work together perfectly. What dressage begins with is simply understanding your horse and learning to ride it in an efficient and bio-mechanically logical way (think of it as moving in the 'correct form', like one might do in other sports - but extra difficult because there are two bodies to think about). For low-level dressage, the moves are as simple as trotting a circle well or being able to change gait at specific points. It's pretty easy to ride a horse well enough to get around and not fall off, but it takes a great deal of practice to develop correct form.

My girlfriend is an equestrian, I never really cared for it and honestly wrote it off before i dated her. But since, I started respecting the sport, horses and riders. It's actually amazing when you think about the training and perfection of two different animals interacting so closely together. There is a bond there I will never understand, and I respect that.

I still always ask my girl what kind of guys get into it because I personally would never be interested, and she doesn't really know. I always just thought it may have been that the boys were playing with Barbies and Pony's instead of cars and action figures, but in respect of the sport and the riders, any affinity with an animal on that level deserves tremendous respect. To each his own!

The sport is extremely expensive though, and requires a lot of time, money and dedication.

A lot of men don't start riding until they're older. Mid to late 20's when they have the business sense to make $$ and move up the ranks fast. Women start when they have visions of ponies in their eyes as toddlers and a lot of us tend to never give it up, even if we're just riding around the back field twice a month/

As an equestrian girlfriend, this made me incredibly happy. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Sometimes I get self conscious that all I can do is ride horses (vs art, dance, other cool things girls can do) and my boyfriend will say "who else can say they ride horses?!" which is nice, but I've never heard someone this understanding of it. It's awesome to hear! :)

Plenty of nowhere-near-rich people ride/own horses. Including myself. I really have no idea why people think that about all riders/horse owners. It's a sport and a passion just like anything else and you can put whatever you want into it.

This guy is a fellow trainer in my town, and by fellow trainer I mean he has more talent in his pinky than I do ino my entire body.He is super nice and modest. The surrounding farms are garishly elaborate and his is simple and functional. The local horse community is super proud of him, this opportunity couldn't have happened to a better person. GO RICH AND FLEXIBLE!!!

I'm an equestrian. I'm a poor college student. I work my ass off doing extra work around the barns and working two jobs just to get a chance to ride a horse every day. I won't be able to afford a horse until I'm much older with a real job. I am dedicated to the sport and I humbly kick some serious ass.

I also get a lot of ass of the female homosapien variety. The horse world is littered with skinny attractive girls just looking for a man who shares the same affinity for horses.

Go to hell all of you who are too ignorant or sheltered to view horsemanship as a lifestyle worthy of respect.

I'll tell you what kind of guys: guys who fell in love with a horsey girl and wanted something to talk about with them. That's how it starts. After you spend a little time at it, taking lessons, etc, you realize how absofuckingly difficult it is to do well. Then, as you continue to take lessons and maybe start showing a little, you have a moment when your horse does something that expresses their fantastic heart and courage and then you're a goner.

Rich is a top class father and person. As an equestrian, we have a tough gig. We work with a partner, one that takes time and incredible patience. It's a marriage. We are the only sport in the games involving not an object, but a thinking being. Sometime we get nutcrackers. It's expensive but if you work hard and apply yourself anything is attainable.

I used to show jump at a much lower level and I rarely saw male riders. We're talking maybe one or two per fifty girls at shows. There seems to be many more of them at higher levels. Where do they come from?!

Most of these riders do not own their horses. Boyd Martin's horse is owned by syndicate of about ten people who back the horse financially. Jan Ebeling, the rider of Mitt Romney's horse, is not spectacularly rich, Romney is. The riders got to the Olympics by sheer hard work, determination, and the backing of generous sponsors. Sponsors do not recognize you if you do not have an extraordinary talent, like all Olympians do.

The majority of these riders own their own training facilities and teach lessons/clinics to make ends meet. They don't sit around and count their money. Especially in eventing, the prize money is minimal to nonexistent, even at high levels.

The training of a top horse requires a ridiculous amount of time and passion. The riding of a top horse requires a ridiculous amount of time and passion. It's really annoying to see the riders' accomplishments shortchanged by people in the media who have no idea what they are talking about.

Hi, i'm an equestrian competing at the national levels for my college riding team. Growing up, I worked for every single lesson by mucking stalls, cleaning, feeding and caring for the horses (and more horrible, stinky chores) with little to no thanks in return. Every minute was worth it.

Rozanski, a college student studying neuroscience, said what's bothered her most about the publicity surrounding the Romneys and their Olympic horse is the idea that dressage is not all that difficult."

well...titanium helmets wouldnt help very much because the point is to absorb the impact, my saddle cost WAY more than a thousand dollars but since they last for 20+ years that shouldnt be too much of a problem in the long run

A good fitted saddle is much more than $1000. A saddle that properly fits a horse is worth its weight in gold because a poorly fitted saddle causes nothing but problems for both horse and rider. When taken care of correctly, a saddle can last for YEARS. I'm talking 20-30 years.

My god, reading these posts make me so sad. Any sport, at a high level, becomes expensive. It is very possible to be an equestrian on a budget. The problem in North America is that only the richest events are televised, so that's all the public knows about.

As for what kind of guys get into horses? Determined ones. It's not an easy sport by any means, for anyone. It takes year-round dedication, it's physically demanding, there are injuries and physical ailments galore and then you have to add in that you are dealing with a thousand pound (plus) animal with a mind of its own. They make it look easy at this level, but that's because at this level the horse had damn well better want it just as much as the rider, because there sure as hell is no way into forcing a horse to do something this demanding when it doesn't want to.

The horses are very well taken care of, yes. Do they have grooms? Yes. Is it necessary to have a separate person taking care of the horses than is riding them? More often than not, yes. Especially at higher levels of competition, it often becomes nearly impossible to take proper care of a horse, compete it and go about all the other tasks of the day while trying to do a top notch job in all those areas. Remember, these horses are also serious athletes and they therefore get the care of one, as well. That may mean physical therapy, massage work, chiropractics, not to mention there aren't exactly fields at horse shows to allow for turn-out. That means that horses have to be hand-walked several times a day on top of their being ridden, whether it be for fitness or competition. Aside from all that, the groom has to worry about everything else. Remember, the groom does pretty much everything for the horse short of the natural biological processes.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop myself before I get too riled up. Sorry for skip-jumping subjects, I just didn't know where to start or finish!

Also, source: I have been involved with horses my entire life and am a former international show jumping groom and 'pro' rider (as in I get paid to ride, not as in I do international competition).

My mother used to be into it. SHe used to show her horses at the american royal in Kansas city.And I think she used to harness race as well. SHe had a wall of awards (ribbons).

And we were FAR from rich. We had a very small horse-boarding farm/business which my mother ran & my father had a normal working class job. The barns used to house hogs (before my parents bought the farm) and were always a bit dilapidated.

Rich kids got name brand potato chips and kraft cheese slices. We got no-name chips and a blocks of velveeta